Hi all,
I would like to share my recent and very disappointing experience with Airbnb host support.
As I was on vacation during the end of the year holidays, I rented out my appartement through Airbnb. Unfortunately, as I returned from vacation, I discovered that my guest had caused some damage in my appartement: he had obviously held a pary (which I had forbidden..) during which a bookshelf had dropped, causing damage to my TV shelf, a lamp and the wall the shelf was attached to. In particular, the wall had many deep scuffs and large black stains. But rather that telling me about this "accident", said guest preferred reinstalling the shelf on the worn-out screws and scrubbing the wall, hoping I wouldn't notice.
I had to make a claim for his security deposit and got contacted by Airbnb host support asking me to provide evidence for the damage, e.g. repair costs and prices of the damaged items. I immediately replied by sending links to the IKEA website to justfy prices and I also submitted an estimate from a painter to repair the wall.
One week passed, and then I got a message stating that, as I had not provided any evidence nor reacted to their email, they would close the file by grating me a one-time "courtesy" paiment of 100 €, which was ridiculously low compared to the total justified damage of more than 800 €.
I exchanged many mails with the person in charge of my file, explaining that I had indeed provided evidence and resending her the messages by which I had submitted the documentation. But I always got the same reply, claiming that they "understand my frustration" but that the case was closed, due to lack of evidence. It was as though they always disregarded the content of my messages. I have spent a lot of time trying to get in touch with somebody else and I called them several times, asking to have my file examined by someone else, but nothing helped!
I honestly don't know what to do anymore... This has been a devastatingly frustrating experience and an enormous waste of many hours of my time: typing messages, figuring out how to get in touch with someone (which is extremely complicated on their webpage),talking to people who don't know your file, etc.!
I recommend to all hosts or future hosts to think very carefully before trusting a stranger with your home. If something goes wrong, how willing are you to trust there will be proper support from Airbnb?
For my part, I have lost all confidence in their abilities/willingness to properly handle such a case. This particular incident has eaten up all of the earnings I have had so far with Airbnb and I now feel it's just not worth it. What will they do if something worse happens (water damage, fire etc.)?
I am very sad and disappointed, especially because I was convinced that their host support was great (which is what you hear all the time). Unfortunately, I was quite wrong...
Best regards,
Michel